[Ben Little]

I need a Cappings spinner and I want to get something that will be easy to use and possibly trouble free. I was looking at the Maxant Jr , but I don't know how often I would have to stop it and empty the wax out. ( is that a pain in the butt? ) I plan to build a proper honey house next year and I want something that will be able to be integrated into any type of system.
I know a spin float/continuous costs more but are they worth the extra money or should I just get a Jr and if I need more just buy another JR ?
I see the Cowen 28 frame setup has 2 Jr's integrated

Anyone care to take a crack at this question ?
Thanks
Ben

 

[Ian]

depends on how much money you want to spend?

 

[BMAC]

I have a Maxant Jr. Nice little unit. I found it can handle about 5 gallons of honey soaked cappings every 4 hours, however I am going to try something a little different with it this year and heat my honey and wax slurry before it goes into the Jr spinner. I If all goes well I should only have to clean it out twice a day. We will see.

It's not a Pain to clean out. 2 wing nuts and a screen. I found if you pull the screen out and pull the cappings off the screen, it cleans up faster than trying to pull the wax off the screen in the drum itself. It does have an eyelet in there if you decide to pull the entire basket to clean. I never found it an issue and the basket doesn't weigh too much empty so I have never used the eyelet. You can have it cleaned out in 10 minutes and set back for spinning more cappngs.

 

[Ben Little]

Ian> I just don't want to waste my money on something cheap if it would be better to wait until I can get a better unit. I don't really have the money to throw around for one but I think it is needed this year. I was hoping to keep it under 2500-3000 but I know I probably won't find a continuous spinner for that amount.

BMAC> Good to know that they aren't a pain to clean, I have seen some videos on them in use but not cleaning them out and I was wondering if they were difficult. Do you use anything special that you like to clean out the wax with?

Thanks
Ben

 

[babybee]

Buy a used spin float. No reason to spend 15 grand at this stage in the game.

 

[BMAC]

Ben the basket on the Jr spinner is lined with a screen material thats held in place by centrifugal force. Nothing more than your hands, maybe a hive tool until all the cappings are done. Then general cleaning as you would any of your extracting equipment.

 

[Ian]

I was exactly in the same boat as you Ben. I use to have an old drum spinner, did the job. This year I was able to invest into the spin float system. The problem with a spin float is you need a pump, heat exchanger, and spinner. I have seen used spin floats for $5000, used pumps for $2000 and used heat exchangers for $2500. You got to make sure these old machines are reconditioned. Old heat exchangers are a gamble as the tubing may be pitted if the operator used water as the heating fluid.

Cowen has a good spinner, it allows you to recover the wax by turning a crank. I have herd good things about that machine. new is around the $8000

 

[MAXANT]

Don't get the 2 machines mixed up.
The spin float and cappings spinners are 2 different machines.
JR/SR spinner are designed for CAPPINGS only
Spin Floats are designed for EVERYTHING

 

[Ben Little]

What do you mean "everything" ?

 

[Roland]

If I may be so bold, I believe "everything" means just that, all of the honey and wax, from the extractor and uncapper, mixed together. I believe "cappings" means drained cappings.

Crazy Roland

 

[Ben Little]

I see, I just went to Maxants site and read that the "senior" spinner is the one you can uncap right into the basket, the junior must need the cappings drained first.
Thanks

 

[BMAC]

I haven't much drained the cappings before they hit the Jr Spinner. I do however warm them in a 5 gallon bucket and slowly dump the bucket into the spinner with no issues.

 

[MAXANT]

I see, I just went to Maxants site and read that the "senior" spinner is the one you can uncap right into the basket, the junior must need the cappings drained first.
Thanks

Nope, both are the same machine. One is 20" diameter (jr) and the other is 30" Diameter (sr)
Uncap directly into or dump cap pings into.
Whatever floats your boat

 

[Ben Little]

Okay so I guess it's a Junior spinner for me this year

 

[The Honey Householder]

I have two Sr. Maxant spinner. Talk to others that have tried the Jr. and say if you are in the honey business don't waste you money on the the Jr. All the guys that have bought the Jr. have upgrade to the Sr. within 2-3 years. Maxant makes nice equipment and it will take a beating. My spinners are 20+ years old.

 

[suttonbeeman]

Ron...I figured you had a spin float

 

[The Honey Householder]

Rick..hard to replace equipment that does the job so well. Would have to redo the whole setup if I change to a spin float. I like my $$$$$$$. Wouldn't mine a bigger warehouse with more truck docks.

 

[dgl1948]

I agree with the others that say stay away from the JR. We have the senior and it does the job but there are issues with this system. see my other posts here. If you can go the spin float way. Yes, it is a lot more money but that is where you will be going in the end.

 

[Ben Little]

Well okay thanks for totally confusing me about the junior inch:
I will have to do some more research on what machinery is the best for my operation, I intend on going to 450-500 hives maximum, I want to be able to manage them myself and not have to hire anyone if possible.
Next year we will have around 200++ hives

 

[bigsteven56]

How much honey do you get out of your capings? I tried finding this on maxant and other websites but couldn't find any information on how much more honey you would collect. Say if you had a 5 gallon pail full of cappings how much honey would you say you could expect? I know its not an exact ratio but if someone could give me a ballpark answer I would really appreciate it. We have 115 hives this year but plan on getting bigger. Thank you